[Fic]星のとなりの空け者 ～智～(Fools Among The Stars: Satoshi) 2/4
星のとなりの空け者 ～智～
Fools Among the Stars: Satoshi
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ManboP x Yama
A Yama fanfiction adaptation by Mie Tachibana
*****************First impressions usually failed Satoshi. With his downward drooping eyes and punk-ish cut, he seemed like a mortal bum but he was a pretty popular water god, especially among the young rainbow gods who often worked with him in the rain department. He was the coolest senpai to them, and the yankii look just added to it, especially when he would be choreographing waves and crafting corals. Everything he made was beautiful, including his minute movements. It was hard to tell if he was passionate or the opposite since his expression rarely changed from the bored look he often had. That is until his sky god colleague was replaced.
"I'm Sho." said the new rain department employee as they bowed to each other. Satoshi grinned, thinking that was the most fitting name for a sky god and that he might just make an entire reef if Sho asked.
It was turning out to be the best job ever until the quality of their rain got worse. It got to the point that they've created too many storms in certain places and too few in the others, quickly becoming part of the many problems causing climate change on a massive scale. They were promptly banned from the rain department and tossed to far away corners of the two sides of the great river between mortals and non-mortals.
For Satoshi, this was practically death. There was no silver lining to the punishment, even if they were told they could meet on the seventh day of the seventh month. It usually rained in the seventh month, anyway.
"On the bright side, senpai," Ryuhei the bubbly water god spoke while bounding beside him, "There's not a lot of work to actually do!"
"Whatever." Satoshi snapped. He had begun to actually like having work to do with Sho around. He still stood by the thought that if they were given enough time, they could have corrected their own mistakes. Now he was relegated to a corner in the mortal world, an island country where he was in charge of a waterfall with Ryuhei the lively water god of the waterfalls in the area and two young rainbow gods who sat not too far, busy chatting and working. Satoshi disliked being a supervisor to them, not that he minds having virtually nothing to do, he just wasn't too fond of calling the shots. Even in the rain department, it was usually Sho who made the decisions.
"Don't be such a gray-ahem." Ryuhei stopped himself short of saying "gray cloud" as soon as Satoshi glared daggers at him. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?" he immediately diverted.
"I wouldn't dare say it." Satoshi lifted some mist into the air: their mundane task of the day. There was laughter echoing from where the two rainbow gods sat and Satoshi looked over to them with a jutted chin. "Are you both done with that yet?"
"We're running out of sunlight, senpai." Yuri, the smaller of the two drifted up to the faint rainbow that hung above the waterfall. He tossed the wisps of colored light into the arch and it glowed a little more into visibility. "That's the last of it," the other one, Ryousuke added. "Yuri and I could get some more if we fly high enough but there seem to be gray clouds out."
"I think it's about to r-" Ryuhei was looking at and observing the sky but Satoshi bumped on him lightly.
"Don't you dare jinx it." He growled.
"Rain! Incoming rain! " a thick voice boomed. They all looked up to see a sky god swoop down to join them. It was Junichi the sky god, Satoshi's former colleague at the rain department whom Sho replaced. He landed beside Satoshi and added, "All gods in the field are being recalled to HQ. This rain will become a storm, a pretty big one."
"What are you doing here?" Satoshi asked grumpily. Sure enough, he felt a piercing cold droplet of rain on his nose and shoulders.
"I thought I should send you guys the message," Junichi said lightly. "And it's been ages since I saw you! You even have your own team now!"
"You worked with senpai before?" Yuri looked excited, hearing the talk though his hard work was slowly fading from view. "What was it like?"
This just made Junichi laugh. "I'd tell you all about it if you come with me after my shift. Now that I've warned you that rain is scheduled, and now that the rain has come, I'm quite done here. We need to return before the storm starts."
"You guys go ahead." Satoshi sighed. He didn't want to be around the others at the moment as the day he had been waiting for was now completely destroyed. He rubbed his temples with one hand over his face, it was also an attempt to cover his eyes in case it had gotten tearful. It was hard to tell in the pouring rain. "I have...some things to do a last minute checkup of."
"You can check it after the rain department is done here," Junichi advised with a nod. "Or you can tell us what to check and leave it to us."
"You're back in the rain department?" Satoshi looked at him in surprise. Sho replaced Junichi after the latter was placed in the daylight department.
"Yeah, they moved me back after some rainbow kid freaked about me touching him." Junichi shrugged. "It was cleared up but they still moved me." He then added with a friendly pat on Satoshi's shoulder. "Higher ups move us whenever they please. It's not your fault nor Sho's fault that I was recalled from the promotion."
There was a loud boom before any of them could say anything else. It was an excellent quality of thunder accompanied by a carefully measured flash of lightning. That was clearly leftover work of Sho and Satoshi. He felt a twinge of guilt and longing that made his hand automatically clutch his chest. His lip quivered and he marched off.
"Senpai!" The rainbow gods called in unison, sounding alarmed. He jumped, his agile and powerful legs rocketing him to a nearby branch like a cat. He surveyed the river and the waterfall. If only it was as easy to fly over the river between the mortal and non-mortal world.
Another boom, but this time it was much louder. It was too quick to hear nor see anything more, Satoshi just felt a strong force knock him off the branch and he was thrown to the ground.
"What in the-?" he tried to say, but it came out as a cough.
"Are you okay?" Ryuhei was standing over him, holding the tree he was previously standing on. With the feel of cold mud in his hands, Satoshi realized that he was nearly crushed by half a huge tree.
He was more confused that Ryuhei was holding the tree like it was just a sack of rice. He was certainly exerting effort, but rain gods shouldn't be that strong. Ryuhei grimaced and tossed the weight in a clear area as Junichi swooped down with the two rainbow gods in his arms.
"Watch where you're running, Satoshi!" Junichi yelled over the strengthening rain and winds, his thick arms wound around the rainbow gods who were tucked to his sides. "Your cute kohai duo nearly got crushed flying after you!"
"I'm...I'm sorry-" Satoshi was still confused as Ryuhei helped him up. "Did...did you just lift the tree...?"
"Well, it's just half a tree." Ryuhei waved his hand modestly. "I wasn't thinking. I know you could've run in time, but I acted on my own, I'm sorry."
"This guy packs some muscles. Just like I do!" Junichi said happily, letting the rainbow gods go and giving Ryuhei a slap on the back. Ryuhei nearly fell over and stumbled onto Ryousuke but laughed it off.
"Muscle..." Satoshi caught a glimpse of the waterfall and its connecting river in the distance. The flow was strong, but he could definitely picture Ryuhei and Junichi being able to swim through it.
He had hope. He could swim across the river to meet Sho!
"P-please-" he approached Junichi. "Please teach me how to grow my muscles!"
The other four looked at him uncertainly until Junichi grinned. "Sure! Now let's get out of this storm first!"
つずく！
To be continued!
星のとなりの空け者
マサキ (3/4)
Please click here to go to the nex chapter!
Starring:
Satoshi Ohno as Satoshi the water god
With
Junichi Okada as Junichi the sky god
Yuri Chinen as Yuri the junior water god
Ryosuke Yamada as Ryousuke the junior water god
Ryuhei Maruyama as Ryuhei the water god
And
Sho Sakurai as Sho the sky god
Notes:
This is a fantasy romance-comedy and there's a little drama at the end.
The story is loosely based on the Tanabata legend and a song trilogy by 家の裏でマンボウが死んでるP of the same title.
Links will be in the last part.
The sky god and water god are part of my own universe for this story and is not derived from any myth or existing work.
The yokai have been adopted to this world and are more like metahumans than monsters.